an islamic community center near ground zero is here. his first u.s. interview on why he wants a mosque just blocks from the site of the 9/11 terror attack. what he thinks of the raging controversy and why he's remained silent so long until now. imam feisal abdul rauf next on "larry king live." good evening. feisal abdul rauf is the founder and chairman of cordoba initiative. he's been imam of the mosque in lower manhattan for 27 years. he plans to build a community center called cordoba house a few blocks from ground zero. these plans have generated a national debate over tolerance, sensitivity, religion and sparked emotional protest against the project. the imam joins us from new york. he's with cnn's soledad o'brien. he agreed to sit down for an interview, in part, because soledad is working on a documentary about what it's like to be muslim in america. here's soledad o'brien with the imam. >> all right, larry. thank you very much. imam, thank you very much for talking with us. >> thank you, soledad. >> you're just back from the middle east. you've been gone for about two months. and you'

sparked emotional protests against the project. the imam joins us from new york. he's with cnn's soledad o'brien. he agreed to sit down for an rt interview, in part, because ki soledad is working on a documentary about what it's like to be muslim in america. here's soledad o'bri with the imam. >> all right, larry. thank you very much. imam, thank you very much for talking with us. >> thank you, soledad. >> you're just back from the middle east. you've been gone for about two months. and you've been pretty quiet about the controversy that has been raging about the proposed struure right near ground zero.ve the debate, while you've been a gone, has gotten louder, and it's gotten angrier. why are you lking now?th >> well, i didn't think it was appropriate for me to speak about this while i was overseas on the trip. i felt i wanted to come home and speak to this issue from my home cotry, from my homeland, from my home base. >> you've had questions while you've been in the middle east about the controversy that's swirling in lower manhattan. what kinds of things are people there asking you abo

to beat him, tea party person, who you brought us. >> i really dmplt christine o'donnell was one of most frequent gets on "politically incorrect" people who don't remember it because they were too young or watching johnny carson. no, i guess gi jay was there. we created anne colter, laura ingraham. i could go on. >> how did you find her? >> we used to become -- i drank a lot in those days. we liked to book female conservatives, you can't not like her. she's such a nice person. we have a great clip that used to be in our highlight reel of ben affleck saying please, christine, shut up. because she would just go on. she was known back there as the girl from salt, saviors alliance for lifting the truth. and i guess that's still the shtick that she's playing. so part of me for sentimental reasons is rooting for christine o'donnell. the other part is rooting her because she's going to get her christian ass kicked in the general election. this is the great thing about the tea baggers and the republican party. a year ago, we were debating whether they were even republican, remember? they were ve

, who you brought us. >> i really did. i mean, christine o'donnell was one of our most frequent guests on "politically incorrect." people who may not remember "politically incorrect" because they were too young. we created people like an ingram. we did like to book a lot of female conservatives. they were good press and they were good for the show. we loved christine o'donnell. i still like her. you cannot not like her. she is such a nice person. we have a great clip that used to be in the highlight reel of ben affleck on the show saying please, christine, shut up. she was known back then as the girl from "salt." salt being the savior's alliance for lifting the truth. i guess that's still -- part of me for sentimental reasons is rooting for christine o'donnell because she's going to get her -- kicked. we were debating were whether teabaggers were republicans. a poll came out and blew the lid off of it, okay, they're really republicans. yeah, they're really republicans. >> larry: who should it be democrats or republicans? >> democrats are very happy that people like christine are winnin

to beat him, a tea party person who you brought us. >> i really did. i mean, kristin o'donnell was one of our most frequent guests on politically incorrect". people who may not remember it because they're too young or watching johnny carson or something, may not remember that we created people like ann coulter, laura ingram. i could go on with a number of -- >> how did you find them? >> we like to book, you know, i don't know. i drank a lot in those days, larry. we did like to book a lot of female conservatives. they were good press and good for the show. we loved kristin o'donnell. you cannot not like her. she is such a nice person. we have great clip of ben affleck on that show saying please, christine, shut up. because i guess she would just go on. she was known back then as the girl from salt, salt being the saviors alliance for lifting the truth and i guess that's still the schtick she's playing. so part of me for sentimental reasons is rooting for kristin in delaware. the other part is rooting for her because she's going to get her christian ass kicked in the general election. th

two. i'm rick sanchez. thanks so much for being with us. "larry king live" starts right "larry king live" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> larry: tonight -- bill maher gets his star on the hollywood walk of fame and yours truly was there. how appropriate. and now, bill's taking aim at today's elections. islamiyah phobia, yeah, sarah palin. your questions and calls, bill maher for the hour next on "larry king live." >> larry: good evening, we've got election results coming in this evening. we'll go to john king in a while to get them. first, bill maher, best-selling author, host of "realtime with bill maher" which returns september 17th. one of the best shows on television. his standup special "bill maher but i'm not wrong" is back on. we'll talk politics with bill right now. bill, i know you have a personal interest in delaware which could be the big story of the night because the republican establishment figure looks like he's going to get beat, the republican establishment saying they won't support the woman who is going to beat him, a tea party person, w

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